New Delhi: India’s most industrialized states such as Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are most vulnerable to the cases of banking frauds using ATM-cum-Debit Cards, Credit Cards, and Cyber Frauds, showed the latest official data shared by the Ministry of Finance on Monday.
“Cyber financial frauds in banking primarily relate to frauds that have taken place in ATMs, debit cards, credit cards, and Internet banking platforms,” Bhagwat Karad, the minister of state for finance told the Lok Sabha on Monday. Karad said that, under the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934, and also under the Payments and Settlement System Act, 2007, the RBI is vested with supervisory powers and functions of non-banking financial institutions, banks, and payments systems respectively.
Citing the data shared by the RBI, the minister said more than 50,000 (50,242) cases of cyber frauds, banking frauds involving the use of internet banking, ATM-Debit and Credit Cards have been reported in the first nine months of the current financial year (April-December 2021 period). The victims of these frauds lost an aggregate amount of over Rs 167 crore during the nine-month period.
Maharashtra accounts for nearly 40% cases
According to the data, Maharashtra was the biggest victim of these cyber and banking related frauds, accounting for as much as nearly 40% of all the cyber and banking fraud cases during this period. The data showed that 19,671 cases of cyber and banking frauds were reported from Maharashtra, followed by the southern state of Tamil Nadu (5,292 cases), the National Capital of Delhi (5,001 cases).
While Haryana reported 4,638 cases of cyber and banking frauds, India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh reported 3,082 cases, followed by Karnataka, the home to India’s IT capital Bengaluru, which reported 2,397 cases. The western state of Gujarat reported 2,281 cases of cyber and banking frauds, while Telangana reported 1,558 cases. All other states including big states such as Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Odisha reported less than 1,000 cases each.
No part of country is safe from banking, cyber frauds
The data also revealed that no part of the country is safe from these cyber crimes and banking frauds. Except for the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, such cases have been reported from all states in northeast, Jammu & Kashmir, UT of Ladakh, and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which reported at least one case that falls under the category of cyber and banking frauds. In the case of remote areas such as UT of Ladakh, three cases were reported from Ladakh while 43 cases of cyber and banking frauds were reported from Jammu & Kashmir.
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